Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Baxter Black - Thrifty

Sharon had hauled
the old piano home in a stocktrailer. It came outta the Miner’s Club in
Mountain City where, according to the bartender, it had set since the
early thirties. It was in sad shape and one end of the ancient upright
was full of holes. Bullet holes! Considering it had never been outta the
bar, the piano player musta needed lessons!

Sharon gave the piano to me and I hauled it home where it sat in my garage for a year.

Brother Steve came to visit. He’s a talented musician with a
craftman’s ability. He’s also one of the thriftiest humans this side of
Ebenezer Scrooge! He asked me if he could try and get the old piano in
workin’ order. “Of course!” I said, “I’ll pay for the parts...whatever
it takes!” I blocked out 3 or 4 hundred in my mind, “Just save your
receipts.”

I came home that afternoon and the garage floor
looked like an orchestra had exploded! He had dismantled that piano down
to wire! The harp lay naked on the concrete.

Over the next several days I watched the
rebuilding take place. Steve would go out on parts runs and return with a
replacement hammer, just the right set screw or a used, but serviceable
piece of ivory. He took particular pleasure in makin’ a shrewd trade.
“Whatever the costs,” I’d say, but he enjoyed finding a bargain.

One day he took me along on a parts run. We drove
down the tracks, behind a big nursery, down a dusty road and pulled up
to a dilapidated house with a few outbuildings. I was struck by the fact
that nothing was painted. There was one unspectacular sign that read
PIANOS-TUNED AND FIXED. We went inside and were greeted by the
proprietor who obviously knew Steve. He was a sad lookin’ man. The house
was full of pianos! Even two in the kitchen. There was an empty can of
tomato soup on the sink. I wandered through the rooms amongst the piano
landscape, leaving Steve and the owner to do business. From the looks of
his home, he lived alone and probably not very high on the hog. Pianos
in various stages of repair filled every available space.